December 1,
2017
December – where has the time flown by?
When we started this trip it was fun and exciting. Then after a couple weeks it felt like it would never end and we
were missing home, and now it feels like we are about over and yet it just
begun.
Well this Friday was a “business” day.
We drove into Knoxville and had the oil changed and the tires aired up
in the RV. You would think this would be
simple, but we have driven 11,000 miles now and Dave has been trying to find a
place that would change our oil and nobody will. He has even asked places if he changes the
oil will they take the oil from us – but no.
He finally found a place that said it would change our oil, so we are
driving 1.5 hours to get it done. Then
when we got there the employees said they couldn’t, but the manager said they
would try. We began to drive in and they
told us to stop that we wouldn’t fit through the door. I got up on the roof as Dave drove slowly. This must have looked hilarious to all the
vehicles driving by on the busy street.
We cleared by 1 inch. Then our
side mirrors we had to turn in, and we had 1 inch clearance on each side. Dave is truly an amazing driver! Once we were finished there we drove to
Camper World and Dave bought some parts for some covers up on top of the
motorhome that were cracked. We then
drove back to Gatlinburg. The traffic
was bumper to bumper for miles but we arrived in time for the kids to swim for
30 minutes before going to supper and our first “It Is Written” meeting.
December 2,
2017
Sabbath morning we awoke and had a wonderful breakfast and meetings. In the afternoon the kids had a several hour
Bible scavenger hunt. It was a wonderful
Sabbath. We heard many great stories,
sermons, and beautiful songs. One of the
stories I enjoyed was of a taxi driver who retired but wanted to
evangelize. So he continued to drive as
a taxi driver but he wouldn’t charge fares for his passengers. He would stop to pick them up and they would
ask how much and he would say it was free as long as they listened to his
devotional he had on in the car. Then at
the end of the ride he would hand them a book.
What evangelistic creativity!
December 3,
2017
Sunday morning the kids were up at 6am to swim and after a wonderful
breakfast and worship we said goodbye to our friends and family. We stopped at the world’s largest knife shop
in Sevierville on our way to Kentucky. I
expected it to be cheap since they had so many but it was definitely an elite
store with expensive prices. Many of the
knives I looked at I couldn’t figure out what they were even for because they
were so specialized. It was a huge store
that was very busy. Within a couple
minutes our whole family was strewn throughout the store. I got tired of trying to keep people together
and so Levi came up with the great idea to tell everyone to meet at the front
door at a certain time and let us all go our ways. So I did a quick walk
through and discovered the store was a good tourist trap with all sorts of
crazy stuff. Serenity and I found in the
bottom floor a place that sold old relics.
There were Bibles from 500 years old in German and Latin and with a
forward by Martin Luther. There were
rocks, fossils, etc.
PLAYBOY
As we were looking we all of a
sudden spotted a playboy from 1970. Now
I know what you are thinking – how dare we even mention this! But wait….
We were shocked and saddened… the
girls in the playboy magazine from 1970 were dressed more modestly than current
“Christians,” - some even how they dress in the house of God. It shocked us. Serenity whispered in shock – “If this is how
much life has changed since then, what is it going to be like in a few
years? Never mind… this is why Jesus has to come soon.” Friends, have we stopped to really realize
how much culture has changed. God’s
moral law has not changed at all - God’s
ways of truth have not changed at all. God’s loving vision for our life hasn’t
changed! Satan is vicious, very well planned, purposeful, has a specific
agenda, and his goal is to brainwash us and get us to compromise with the
world. I am convicted. How much have I compromised? How much of what I do is because of accepted
“culture.” God forbid!
And is true love silent? Does true
love watch others be deceived and say “I don’t want to hurt their feelings?” One story that John Bradshaw preached was of
our concern for others. The three angels
message is one of warning. It is not
pleasing to the ears, but it is life saving.
He spoke about a time he was driving along a road and saw a house on
fire. He stopped, and banging on the
door he immediately opened in and bounded up the stairs into the house and told
the startled woman her house was on fire and she needed to get out. Was she angry at him for saving her? Of course not! She was grateful! If this is what we would do to save someone
from a burning house, what should we be willing to do to save someone from
Satan’s deceptions that result in eternal death? We must learn to love one another, and
to not keep silent while they perish in front
of us. We must warn them lovingly. We must be willing to risk the emotional pain
of rejection to save someone for eternity.
December 4,
2017
Monday morning we went to Mammoth cave.
It was mammoth! (thus it’s name) I quickly realized we were seeing what
Genesis describes as the “fountains of the deep” that opened up in the
flood. There are 412 miles of cave that
have been mapped and many other areas they know exist that nobody has been
inside yet. In the middle of this is
what they call a bottomless pit where it drops for hundreds of feet into some
sort of underground waterway. I find it
so fascinating that wherever I go in the world – I see clear evidence that
backs up the accounts of the Bible. Of
course, evolutionists say this is evidence of millions of years of erosion….
But they have no foundation. We have the foundation of a Bible, written by God,
who was there, who saw it, and who had real people write it down. The Bible has been verified through prophecy,
history, and science. And everywhere I
go in the world, everything I see, backs up the Bible. It is glorious to be a Christian!
We then drove to Cincinnati to meet up with my mom and Papa who were
flying in. It was so nice to see and hug
each other again! And to eat the
homemade bread they brought….
December 5,
2017
We went to the Creation Museum together. We have wanted to come for years
so it was a dream come true for all of us.
It was amazing! Ken Ham does a
very good job at presenting the Great Controversy – the story through creation,
sin, the flood, Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection, our power of choice, and
Christ’s soon coming. He had wonderful
presentations with fossils and nature to show how science backs up a literal 6-day
creation and a global flood. They had an
amazing beetle collection – the best I have ever seen. I know, who really cares about beetles, but
when you look at the pictures they are beautiful! They show what an amazing creator we have!
That evening we watched some DVD’s in our motorhome. One of them was by Ray Comfort. We already own and have watched before his
DVD called “Audacity” which is on homosexuality. He approaches open homosexuals at homosexual
rallies and within a few questions, using their own reasoning, they admit
homosexuality is wrong. In the new DVD
we watched, he did the same thing with Abortion. He started by asking people what they thought
of the holocaust. He asked them if it
was ok what Hitler did. He then asked
them if they were pro-life. Then he
asked if they thought abortion was ok.
They would say yes. He would say
but I thought you just said you were pro-life.
They would then make some sort of excuse as to why the circumstances
were different. So he would then ask them to finish the following sentence: “Abortion
is ok if…..” If they said because of quality
of life he would then ask them if it was ok to kill people with down syndrome. If they said it was because of inconvenience or
not being able to take care of the child, he asked them if what Hitler did was
ok then since the Jews were an inconvenience to him. Within a few questions they would admit they
had changed their view of the matter and did not think abortion was ok under
any circumstance. They also said that in
no way should they vote for any government leader who condones abortion. Ray Comfort has another DVD out for atheism
also. They are very powerful. I think you can look him up and find them on
youtube.
It has been frigidly cold. High of
40’s, low of 20’s at night. We curl up
in our blankets, turn the heater on, and we wear out our battery at some point
in the night trying to keep the motorhome warm.
Benjamin awoke at 5am and climbed in bed with us because he was so cold.
December 6,
2017
We went to the Ark Encounter. Ken
Ham has constructed a life-size replica of the biblical ark. It is huge, beautiful, and handcrafted in
pure wood from Amish craftsman. Just
like the Bible, it has 3 levels. You
walk in the bottom and walk through all 3 levels. He shows how mathematically and logistically
the ark would have been a solid sailing vessel all the animals could have fit
onto. In fact I realized just as EGW
says, there was ample room for more! Ken
Ham shows scientific evidence for a global flood and shows why evolutionary
dating methods are incorrect. One of the
examples he showed was of a plane that went down in Antarctica. 50 years later they discovered where it was and
dug down through the snow and ice to retrieve the airplane one piece at a
time. According to evolutionists, when
dating things in ice, one layer is one year, but what they found is there were
over 200 layers of ice in what they knew for a fact had taken 50 years to lay
down. Another example that stuck out in
my mind with the Grand Canyon is that if it happened over millions of years
there would have been erosion from the sides also, not just a perfect straight
chasm created. Also, the river at the
bottom of the Grand Canyon is not wide enough to carve out that wide of a
canyon. If the river carved the canyon,
it would be narrow. A 3rd
point is the rock layers and how they bend.
If they were laid down in hard rock, when they bent they would have
cracked. However, if they were soft
layers laid down, they would have bent and kept their shape – which is exactly
what you find all over the earth in layers.
They do a very nice and purposeful job of pointing each visitor to
Christ. They point out what sin has
done, how God judged the earth the first time with a global flood, and will
judge the earth soon with his second coming and with fire. They present the gospel message clearly of
how to be saved.
As I think on the life of Noah,
there were millions of people living on planet earth at that time. Their thoughts were continually evil – not
much different than how we see today, and yet Noah lived by faith. He invested everything he had in saving his
family and begged others to follow God also.
He warned of the judgement, but was laughed, mocked, and rejected. He followed God even when he was the only
one. How many are truly living for God
today? Is it a vast number? Are we living with the purpose of knowing the
judgment is soon, and we must be ready? Have we separated our hearts and minds
from the world and dedicated our thoughts and heart purely to the Lord? Have we decided to follow the Lord even if
our entire family and friends reject him?
That evening we watched a DVD of
Ken Ham and Bill Nye walking through the Ark Encounter together – the second
debate. Our family consensus was Ken Ham
was “throwing his pearls to the swine.”
We discussed how to know who to speak to about the Lord and when to just
walk away. We were mostly exhausted by
the end of it but I did pick up a few interesting things. One of them was that
Bill Nye when questioned why after Mt. St. Helen’s eruption when they dated the
lava it was dated to be very old instead of a few years old. Bill Nye said of
course because it was really old rock coming out from under the earth’s
surface. Well, evolutionists date their
layers of earth based upon the top later being younger, and each layer
underneath being older. But his
statement shows this practice to not be reliable because in a volcano it brings
old layers up and places them on top of what could be younger layers. I refer back to Romans 1. God reveals himself to all of us. We each see God’s handiwork and the
orderliness and magnificence of creation.
We all have a moral code written upon our hearts and minds. We all make a choice to submit to God, or to
reject his sovereignty.
WHY DOES A
LOVING GOD ALLOW SO MUCH DEATH AND SUFFERING?
If the God of the Bible is truly
all-powerful and loving, why has He not put an end to death and suffering? Is He incapable or unwilling to do it? The
Bible states that one day death and suffering will be no more. Right now, God is patiently delaying His
final judgment to give people time to turn to Him.
We need to understand that as
sinners, we all deserve to die. However,
through Jesus Christ, God has provided the way for us to spend eternity with
Him in a place where there is no suffering, sorrow, or pain. Death will finally die.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill
His promise… He is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for
all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
They will be His people, and God
Himself will be with them. God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. There
will be no more death, grief, crying, and pain will no longer exist, because
the former things have passed away.
Revelation 21:3-4
WAS IT JUST
FOR GOD TO JUDGE THE WHOLE WORLD?
First, God created all living
things, which gives Him authority over them.
Since He is the one who gave life, He has the right to take life. Second, God is perfectly just and must judge
sin. Third, all have sinned and deserve
death and judgement.
The fact that God allows us to
live at all demonstrates His abundant mercy.
And as if that were not enough, He has provided the way for man to be
saved from sin and dwell eternally with Him through the sacrificial death and
resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
December 7,
2017
A day that will live in infamy... Oh how blessed we are to have life this
morning and not wake up to bombers overhead! We had breakfast and then said
goodbye to my mom and Papa. It began to
snow, and we spent all morning driving in snow but with nothing accumulating on
the road. We were loving the beauty of the snow! Then the wind picked up. We heard some
terrible racket on top of the motorhome… Don’t know what that was. Then we heard another and we saw it tumble
off the top of the motorhome. Dave said
it was some small solar charging system that didn’t work anyway. We thoroughly enjoyed driving back into
farmland. What a beautiful sight!
We arrived in Springfield,
Illinois – in history where Abe Lincoln spent much of his life. It was freezing – below 30 degrees, and
windy. We toured his beautiful little
home and then walked half mile through the freezing air to the museum in town. It was a very lovely museum. We learned of course about Abe’s poor
upbringing, hard work, and self-learning.
How inspiring! We learned about
how much he dabbled in politics and lost, and yet persevered so he could win
some too. We learned about the politics
behind the election and how we won while not getting a single southern
vote. We learned about his marriage (a
challenge) and his parenting (he believed in letting boys be boys and not
disciplining them) and the challenging years of his presidency. We were reminded of how blessed we are today –
out of 4 sons the Lincoln’s only had 1 who survived into adulthood.
We probably learned the most
though about Mrs. Lincoln just because we didn’t know about her. Both Mr. and Mrs. lost their mother’s in
their childhood. Mr. Lincoln loved his
step-mother, while Mrs. Lincoln did not.
Mrs. Lincoln moved to Springfield so she could leave her parents and
live with her older sister. This is
where Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln met, married, and had their 4 sons. Mr. Lincoln was the first president from the
west, and Mrs. Lincoln had social challenges in Washington D.C. because of her
western ways of speech and lack of refined manners. Mrs. Lincoln felt intimidated by other women
and ostracized herself with her attitudes toward them. Also, Mrs. Lincoln was criticized by the
leaders of her country for her vast expenditures in redecorating the white
house. When Mr. Lincoln was assassinated
she was very concerned about her financial situation and requested $3,000 a
year from Congress. Because of her
relations with them, it narrowly was approved.
She would make such a seen with her angry outbursts and erratic behavior
that her only surviving son, took her to court and had her interned in a
psychiatric facility. She was able to
get her way out, but was given into the care of her sister where she had to
stay inside the house. There are no
surviving Lincoln descendants, they died out at the 3rd generation.
December 8,
2017
We awoke this morning to the
windows being iced over and it being low 20’s.
Our propane was on empty – but praise God our heater was still
running! We drove into St. Louis and
went up to the top of the arch and into the old courthouse. Walking on those stones in the courthouse
made me think humbly of all the people in history who walked on those same
stones. Weird fact we learned also was
that the Redwood trees in California are taller than the Statue of Liberty, and
half as tall as the St. Louis arch. God’s
creation sure is marvelous!
We then headed South to a little
town called Bruner, MO. It is about an
hour NE of Branson, MO. There we visited
our friends: Jim, Connie, and Nate Porter.
They went to Startup church and lived in the Sultan area for decades but
about 10 years ago moved Jim and Connie moved to MO and Nate joined them this
last year. We arrived Friday as the sun
was going down and had a wonderful time being spoiled by Connie’s great
cooking, Jim’s great guitar playing, and all the stories. That evening we went to someone house where
about 15 of us gathered for a Bible study.
We had a wonderful time and there saw Ivan Downs. (Also went to Startup
church for many years but retired here.)
December 9,
2017
Sabbath morning we all went to
the Porter’s church in Ava, Mo. The
church was pretty full and the people were really nice. We were asked to give a 30 minute program
right before the church service. We did
short testimonies mixed with music and people were so blessed and inspired the
head elder got up when we finished and asked us if we were willing to be put on
the spot and do more in the afternoon.
We agreed. After church and
potluck we did testimony mixed with music for about another hour. We all had so much fun. The church decided to take up a love
offering. We declined saying we have
always done ministry for free and for the Lord only but they insisted. Several families approached us and said what
a blessing we were, how inspired they were, and were asking us questions. As I was walking out a lady stopped her
conversation with a friend and told me she could see us visiting churches and
putting on a program with Adventist History stories (that was part of our
testimonies) and music while dressed in that period of clothing. I have always
found it such a blessing to organize musical sabbath programs at our local
church mixed in with readings – but we had never thought of taking this onto
the road as a full-time ministry. But
our family is seriously considering it now.
Maybe this is another reason the Lord led us to purchase our motor
home. And we are definitely used to
living in a motorhome now… So please
keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we consider this and if your church
would like us to come and put on a church service let us know. We are willing. (And that’s one way to make us come and see
you!)
That evening we went into
Branson, MO and saw “The Miracle of Christmas.”
It is a theater production like never before. The story behind it is
fascinating. Glenn would take pictures
of nature and paint them. When he
married he began selling his paintings from the trunk of his car. One day he presented his scenic photography
at a local church using a slide projector with music playing and
narration. The audience response was
overwhelming and the first “sight and sound” show was a humble success. Soon they were taking their multimedia
presentations all over the United States, and in 1976 they opened their first
permanent home. They definitely have a
very Christian focus with their presentations and desire to point people to
Jesus. Anyways, as to the show, there
were animals going through the aisles, flying through the air, people dressed
as angels flying through the air, etc.
It was spectacular. As Jim Porter
put it, “It was quite the production.” It caused me to contemplate some things
about the birth of Christ I had never thought of before.
THE MOTHER
OF JESUS
At first I thought to myself –
how nice it would have been to give birth to a child you know is going to be
perfect; Jesus never disobeyed. But then
I realized – what a solemn responsibility to train a child to be perfect! And then the heartache she endured not
understanding her own son’s death, even though she was his mother. No wonder she was weeping there before the
cross uncontrollably. She bore heavy
burdens we have never thought of. Not
only was He truly the Messiah, but had she raised Him in vain? How was he to deliver Israel as he lay there
on the cross dying?
MENTAL
PRESSURE
Can you imagine the persecution
Mary endured being pregnant without being married. And who would have believed her story? She probably lost most of her friendships and
even her family relationships. Even
Joseph initially rejected her. But she
was patient and waited for months and waited for God to do His work of
revealing this to Joseph. And her entire
life she would have still dealt with the spurning of others.
THE LINEAGE
OF CHRIST & JOHN THE BAPTIST
I find it interesting that when
God needed 2 of the most godly people on earth, they happened to be
cousins. Does that teach the power of
godly parents and grandparents? Back to
Noah and the ark, it was only the 1 family who got onto the ark. I don’t think we realize the great power we
have within our families for the salvation of souls. The family truly needs to be our first mission
field.
CIRCUMSTANCES
IN BIRTH OF CHRIST
Many people thought I was crazy
to give birth to my children in the comforts of my own home. But, can you imagine, Mary haven never given
birth before, giving birth in an unsanitary stable, all alone, and without
comforts or support? What if there would
have been complications? Talk about a
birth of faith! And who would have gone
on a journey across country on a donkey while being at term? What faith they had! I want to have that much faith! Faith enough to conquer all fears and trust
that God is my leader in all things.
WHO VISITED
BABY JESUS
Isn’t it interesting that those
who visited baby Jesus were the poorest of shepherds, 2 temple workers, and the
wisest of men from other countries? I
thought to myself, is my heart in alignment with the Lord? If there was something of eternal significance
going on, would my heart by soft enough to hear the announcement from the Lord?
December 10,
2017
We were exhausted from a late
night yesterday. I woke up before the
others and took a walk on the road while I worked on my Bible memory. The bright red cardinals were flying all
around on the fence beside the road. It
was peaceful and invigorating! After a
fantastic breakfast (Connie lays out quite the spread!) we all went outside and
walked or road 4-wheelers/motorbikes and explored through their close to 500
acres. We also took a ride through the
hills in an old army truck. We had a
blast. Nate was great with the 3 boys and
those boys had a blast all day long. In
the evening two neighbor families came over.
We were all together 3.5 hours – 90% of the time singing songs together
and a little talking. It was a big
blessing for all of us present.
LISA’S BIBLE
MEMORY
About a month ago I was
convicted if my kids are doing Bible memory for Pathfinders (and ultimately
their walk with the Lord) shouldn’t I be doing Bible memory also? I thought about how as a child I had
memorized Romans 6 and a few years ago I memorized James but I have forgotten
them both. So this last month I went
back and rememorized Romans 6 and then I decided to tackle the Sermon on the
Mount. The Sermon on the mount is 3 very
long chapters, but today I finished chapter 5.
God has been so good. I have been
able to pretty easily master 4-5 verses a day of memorization and retain
everything. When I wake up in the
morning the first thing I do while laying in bed is say all my Bible memory in
my head, and then it is the last thing at night. Then first thing every morning I memorize my
new verses and mediate on them throughout the day and contemplate their meaning
and how to put that practically into my life.
I also read EGW’s comments each morning from “Thoughts from the Mount of
Blessings” on my verses for the day. But
God has miraculously been sticking those words into my head. And I find they are a huge key to my spiritual
strength. When I am tempted to sin I can simply quietly in my head recite these
verses and by the time I am done, my mind is focused on Christ, and the desire
to sin is gone and my soul is soothed.
God is so very good!
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